tysonduke23 fights for victory and wins 8/23/09 Sunday Million

It happened again. Live tournaments have revved up around the globe, keeping people from their trusty laptops and home computers. Whether people are wrapping up their trips to the European Poker Tour stop in Kyiv or heading out to Macau for the start of the third season of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, or playing with the likes of Daniel Negreanu at the WPT Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, they were not logged in to PokerStars for this week's Sunday Million.

Their loss. (Except in the case of those winning those live tournaments, in which case we see the point of their choices.)

For the 7,431 players who did turn up for the August 23rd rendition of the Sunday Million on PokerStars, they were in for a bit of a treat. The guarantee of $1.5 million kicked in and gave players a $13,800 overlay. Out of the starting field, the last 1,080 competitors standing received a portion of the $1.5 million prize pool, though over half of it was reserved for the final table finishers. A whopping $225K was up for grabs to the player who outlasted the entirety of the field, so there was nothing but excitement on tap for the latest Sunday Million event.

With a smaller than usual field, one would suspect an early final table but there was no rush to play as the that point neared. It took quite some time to find those last nine players, but with the eventual elimination of CrAzYSiXeS66 in 11th place, hand-for-hand play was implemented. Only a few hands later, New Shawboy was eliminated by tysonduke23 and his pocket aces:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Tenth place gave New Shawboy $8,250.00 for the effort, but it left the last nine players set up to continue on at the final table as follows:

Short-stacked dmytro1 was anxious to try for a double-up, and he succeeded when his A-K of diamonds made a flush to crush the pocket pair of queens held by shawry5. Sheeeeep also managed a double when his pocket jacks held up to the pocket tens of rmpvieira. And Faraday had a substantial double-up when his aces held up to the eights of DDfromDS. tysonduke23 did it through Specialk66 in a pot worth nearly 20 million chips, which put tysonduke23 in the lead. None of the players seemed shy about putting their chips at risk on this table, but it took quite awhile before any of those actions resulted in an elimination.

Finally, after Specialk66 was crippled to less than 1 million chips by the tysonduke23 double-up, the short-stack made the all-in move from the big blind with Q♣6♠, and DDfromDS was there with A♣3♥ and the call. The board came J♣J♠K♠4♠K♣, and the ace kicker played to eliminated Specialk66 in ninth place, which was worth $11,625.00.

Within minutes, Sheeeeep tried an all-in move holding A♣8♦, but Faraday woke up to pocket kings with which to make the call. The virtual dealer quickly put out a board of Q♥J♦7♠2♠5♣, and the kings held up to send Sheeeeep out to pasture in eighth place with $18,000.00.

jornxx had a wild ride in his final level of play at the table, first doubling through DDfromDS, then losing most of those chips when rmpvieira doubled through jornxx. With just over 3.6 million left in his stack, it was time to move again, which he did preflop with 8♥7♣, but when Faraday looked down at A♥K♠ in the big blind, the decision to call was not a difficult one. The board ran out 7♠K♦6♦T♣4♣, and jornxx left in seventh place with $46,500.00 as a consolation prize.

After nearly a half hour of no more eliminations, the six remaining players returned from a break and decided to take a look at chip-chop numbers. Shockingly and without any disagreements or negotiations, all parties accepted the deal as proposed, which was completed as follows with the exception of $30,000 more set aside for the eventual winner:

And then big-pot poker came into play. After dmytro1 doubled through DDfromDS in a 15-million-plus chip pot, DDfromDS was left with just over 4.5 million and the urge to move it. The all-in move actually came from tysonduke23 preflop, but DDfromDS called all-in for his tournament life with K♥3♥. Up against the pocket fives of tysonduke23, the two watched the board immediately drop a five on the flop. The entire board ran out 5♦K♠A♦3♦T♣ to end the run for DDfromDS, and he collected the $99,395.10 agreed upon in the deal.

The only word for the flurry of action that followed was "crazy." After tysonduke23 doubled through dmytro1, the latter was very short-stacked and pushed all-in with A♥3♦. rmpvieira called with 8♣6♥ and found a miracle board of Q♣3♣2♣7♣K♦. With four flush cards right out of the gate, rmpvieira won with that flush and send dmytro1 out in fifth place with $92,818.62.

Faraday seemed to be quickly running away with the tournament after having doubled through shawry5 a few hands earlier. Faraday then got involved with rmpvieira preflop when the latter moved all-in with K♣9♥. Faraday was the caller from the big blind with A♣K♦, and the board came 5♣A♠Q♦3♣K♠. The two pair knocked rmpvieira to the rail in fourth place with $122,947.31.

One right after the other, it seemed, was how it continued. And it was Faraday at the helm again, this time calling shawry5's all-in. Faraday had A♥K♥ to the pocket fives of shawry5, and the cards on the board came K♠T♦2♥J♣J♠. shawry5 had the lower two pair and was eliminated in third place with $146,483.00.

And the tables turned, so to speak, in the blink of an eye. The very first hand of heads-up action went down as follows:

RSS readers click through to see replay

New chipleader tysonduke23 saw Faraday double through him in a subsequent pot but kept the lead going into the fourth hand of heads-up. Faraday made the initial raise, and tysonduke23 reraised all-in. Faraday called all-in for his tournament life with K♥J♦, but tysonduke23 showed the better A♠9♣ hand. The board brought aces, seemingly just to make a point that the all-in fest must end, as it produced A♦3♥6♥Q♣A♣. With that, Faraday settled for second place and $119,401.59.

The winner of the 8/23 Sunday Million was tysonduke23, who collected a total of $117,009.38 for the accomplishment. Congratulations to all of tonight's finishers!